Hi a question about supporting electrolytes (SE) I hope you can help with. I found some related questions here through searching but looking for a simple answer (if there is one!):
If SE are electroinactive (in the potential range of interest) and so do not pass or receive electrons at the electrodes to complete the circuit then how to they "increase conductivity"? I am referring to typical DC experiments, e.g. chronoamperometry. It's not like electrons hop through the solution from one electrode to the other using SE ions as a shuttle.
I understand that one role is that they migrate to the opposite electrodes to neutralize ion charge imbalances that would build up due to reagent consumption or product generation from the electroactive species you are measuring (e.g oxidizing an enzyme product), thereby facilitating these redox reactions that do occur to continue. Is this the answer? So in just water + SE, for example, it is more conductive because they facilitate the electrolysis of water (H2 and O2 generation (e.g for SE without Cl-) by this method?
I also understand that movement of ions is considered current, but with DC wouldn't this migration slow down and exhaust as time went on? Is it this transient conductivity due to ion movement that they refer to?
Thanks!
Thanks for your answer Maurice. What you describe sounds like this (maybe not clearly written) part of my own possible answer to my question: "I understand that one role is that they migrate to the opposite electrodes to neutralize ion charge imbalances that would build up due to reagent consumption or product generation from the electroactive species you are measuring, thereby facilitating these redox reactions that do occur to continue".
I think my confusion arises because the IUPAC definition is: "A supporting electrolyte, in electrochemistry is an electrolyte containing chemical species that are not electroactive (within the range of potentials used) and which has an ionic strength and conductivity much larger than those due to the electroactive species added to the electrolyte", which makes it sound like the the SE ions themselves are conductive. Plus the most common explanation offered is along the lines of "because they are ions and ions conduct".
If I understand correctly now as discussed, they actually facilitate the reaction of the true electroactive species (which produce faradaic currents through redox - the current being a measure of conductivity), by maintaining neutrality around the electrode, rather than being "conductive" themselves (along with other roles such as making results more purely diffusion controlled, etc).
Put simply, the SE ions do not increase conductivity directly by contributing to the current (like an electroactive ion would), but increase conductivity by increasing the rate of faradaic processes of the actual electroactive species that are present (by using the SE ions to maintain electrical neutrality around the electrode).
Is this it?
Again, thanks for your time!